MANILA, Philippines – While the number of jobseekers continue to increase, there have been fewer job vacancies in the country, government data showed.

Data from the Philippine Statistics Authority’s latest Integrated Survey on Labor and Employment (ISLE) showed that the number of job vacancies declined in 2016, while the demand for jobs increased by 12% during the same period.

The ISLE, conducted every two years, is a nationwide sample survey covering agricultural and non-agricultural establishments with 20 or more workers. The 2015/2016  ISLE is on occupational shortages and surpluses and covered 12,926 establishments.

“[The] number of job vacancies took a downturn from 753,092 in 2014 to a total of 698,683 in 2016. In contrast, the number of applicants for the same period increased by 12%,” the latest ISLE showed.

Of the total number of vacancies posted, 65.8% were regular positions while 34.2% were non-regular positions. 

The services sector, specifically the repair, administrative support, and accommodation and food services activities saw the steepest drop in job vacancies at 39%, 27%, and 31%, respectively. 

Clerks got the highest share in the number of vacancies at 227,000 or 32.5% among the occupational groups. This is followed by service workers and sales workers with 115,373 or 16.5%.

Job vacancies for professionals only accounted for 91,175 or 13%. 

Meanwhile, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported that the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry continued to be the biggest job generator in the country in 2017. 

Based on data obtained from its job matching web platform PhilJobnet, call center jobs topped the list of openings in all months of the year. 

A total of 133,300 call center agent positions opened from January to December 2017.

Other jobs with the most number of vacancies posted on the website include office clerk, service crew, non-formal education teacher, food service dispatcher, salesman, health consultant, staff nurse, and production factory worker.

Filipino jobseekers as young as 15 years old may sign up and access DOLE’s online portal.

In December last year, the Philippines recorded an unemployment rate of 5.7%, 1% higher than the 4.7% rate in 2016. 

The country also saw its lowest underemployment rate in a decade at 15.9% in 2017.  – Rappler.com